Letter from the CEO
-Bogdan Voicu
To all of our customers,
In 2019, I had a life-changing opportunity to join the Arcade Green team as their accountant. The company had already established itself in the cabinetry and flooring space on Oahu since 2014. The product was good, as proven by steadily growing demand, but keeping up with such demand was the weakest link. Everyone says having more demand than you can supply is a great problem to have. It still is a problem. A lot had to change before we could even begin to solve it. The potential, though, was clear from day one.
Two years in, I could still see that potential, even through all the challenges. When the opportunity presented itself, I became the owner of this so-called good problem. I strongly believed it could become something great.
The first order of business was getting more inventory on hand and minimizing lost opportunities with our clients. Our 7,500 sq.ft. warehouse was already packed to capacity, which meant working with multiple third-party storage facilities while spending 18 months searching for a better space. Finding it wasn’t enough, as it took another 6 months of negotiations before we had a location we could truly grow into.
During those first two years of ownership, our sales office evolved from a 20-foot makeshift container in the warehouse yard, to a separate location across the highway, to finally having both our showroom and warehouse under one roof. That new location gave us the ability to build a showroom worthy of our products and one that continues to earn compliments from nearly everyone who walks through our door. Our warehouse space grew to 65,000 sq.ft., allowing us to keep our full product line in stock, all the time, as promised to our clients.
The timing couldn’t have been more critical. We were in the middle of a pandemic where logistical nightmares, shortages and delays were everyone’s reality. By solidifying our relationships with our manufacturing facility, raw material suppliers and freight partners, we were able to minimize the impact. After personally visiting the manufacturing facility, we established new quality control standards, introduced pre-treatment of raw materials against termites and wood-eating insects, and committed to growing that partnership together.
Having a great product, the right warehouse and a beautiful showroom wasn’t the full potential I had envisioned. While building the supply side, I was also focused on building a team that genuinely cares. That meant working with family, friends, existing employees, and new hires, along with all the challenges that come with each. The vision was, and continues to be, what we call the AG Experience. It’s not just a marketing phrase. It’s a deeply held commitment I’ve made to myself, and one I continuously work to instill in every new team member. It was inspired by a personal retail experience that left me pleasantly surprised and one I can still recall with the same emotional clarity to this day, more than 20 years later. I am committed to delivering that same experience to as many of our customers as possible.
Renovation projects are stressful by nature. There will always be delays, surprises, challenges and decisions that feel overwhelming. We can’t control everything on a job site. What we can control is ourselves through our responsiveness, our clarity, our follow-through and our genuine desire to make your project as smooth and headache-free as possible. We should never be the reason your project gets harder.
That doesn’t mean we’re perfect. We’re not, and mistakes can happen. The difference is that we are committed to continuously improving so that your experience with us gets better every time.
As of January this year, we ended distribution of our products through big box stores, a decision to take greater ownership of the end-user experience. I believe we’ve come a long way in the last five years and I’m still chasing our maximum potential. Our focus on the customer experience has allowed us to work alongside many respected contractors, builders, designers and architects, earn a feature on HGTV’s Renovation Aloha and put a smile on thousands of faces when they see their newly completed space. We continue to serve clients on Oahu and all neighbor islands directly through our own Honolulu retail location.
If you’ve had a great experience with us, thank you! It means everything to our team and reinforces the vision I’ve been working toward. If you’ve had a frustrating one, I want to hear about it. Personally. That feedback is exactly what helps us to keep getting better.
Thank you for being part of our journey. We don’t take your trust lightly, and we look forward to earning more of it.
Sincerely,
Bogdan Voicu
CEO, Arcade Green
bogdan@arcadegreen.com